Five Solas: Solus Christus (Substitutionary Atonement & Double Imputation)

Christ on the Cross:

Jesus Died in Our Place (Substitutionary Atonement)

“…Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.”   1 Corinthians 15:3

Nearly 2,000 years ago a poor, homeless, single man in his early 30′s was executed by crucifixion like many other common criminals. He never wrote a book, never traveled more than 200 miles from his home, never held a political office, never married or had children, and never ran a company. His name is Jesus Christ and history is divided into the periods before and after his life, Time magazine named him “Man of the Millennium,” and more songs have been sung to, books written about, and artwork painted of him than anyone who has ever lived. Moreover, a few billion people alive today worship Him as their only God and deeply love Him unlike anyone who has ever lived.

Why?

Because Jesus has done what no one else could do: taking away their sin by dying on a cross as a substitute in their place. It is the cross of Jesus that is the symbol of the Christian faith and the crux of human history. In explaining Jesus’ death for sin on the cross, theologians use the word atonement. The word literally means “at-one-ment” and explains how Jesus as God and man can alone reconcile sinners to a holy God. Jesus dying in the place of sinners (also known as Penal Substitution and Substitutionary Atonement) is a frequent theme of Scripture, including the following verses:

• Isaiah 53:6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him [Jesus] the iniquity of us all.

• John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

• Romans 3:25 God presented Him [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood.

• Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

• 1 Corinthians 15:3 …Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.

• 2 Corinthians 5:21 God made Him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

• Hebrews 2:17 For this reason He [Jesus] had to be made like His brothers in every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that He might make atonement for the sins of the people.

• Hebrews 9:28 Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.

• 1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed.

• 1 John 2:1-2 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense-Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

• 1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Double Imputation (Our Sin, Christ’s Righteousness)

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”   2 Corinthians 5:21

Job asks one of the great questions of the Bible in chapter 9, verse 2 of the book bearing his name: “But how can a mortal be righteous before God?” Indeed, the Bible repeatedly teaches that God is righteous (Ezra 9:15; Psalm 4:1; 7:9; 11:7; Isaiah 5:16; 45:21; Daniel 9:14). By righteous, Scripture means straight, right, sinless, just, and lawful.

Scripture also teaches that God made humanity in a state of sinless righteousness (Genesis 1:31; Ecclesiastes 7:29). However, humanity fell into a continual state of unrighteousness beginning with our father Adam in Genesis 3. Since Adam was our representative head and physical father, his sin has been imputed to us all (Romans 5:12-21). By imputation it is meant that his sin has been reckoned, transferred, or charged to everyone. In a sense, when Adam chose rebellion and war against God, we all did; in much the same way, when our president takes our nation to war, in a sense we are all at war, as he chooses as our representative head for us all. Consequently, everyone is conceived with an unrighteous sin nature (Psalm 51:5; 58:3) and subsequently lives a life marked by personal sin (Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:10). This state of unrighteousness is the opposite of God’s nature and is marked by crookedness, wrongness, sin, injustice, and rebellion.

Human unrighteousness includes the frequent attempts to be righteous apart from God, which is the sin of self-righteousness (Romans 10:3, illustrated in Luke 18:9-14). Rather than being impressed at human attempts at righteousness, God harshly declares that our righteousness is as grotesque to Him as a bloody tampon given to us as a precious gift (Isaiah 64:6a).

Perhaps the people most devoted to pursuing self-righteousness were the Pharisees. Despite their great self-discipline and moral life, Jesus declared that unless our righteousness superseded theirs we would end up in hell along with them (Matthew 5:20). Therefore, no one can make themselves righteous before the Righteous God (Romans 3:10, 20).

Compassionate toward us, our eternal God, Jesus Christ, became a man. Because Jesus did not have an earthly father descended from Adam, He did not inherit an unrighteous sin nature and was the beginning of a new humanity as the second Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45). Unlike the first Adam who sinned, Jesus lived a life of righteous perfection (Romans 5:12-21), resisting all temptations to sin (Hebrews 4:15), fulfilling all of God’s laws (Matthew 5:17), fulfilling all righteousness (Matthew 3:15), and dying as the only righteous man who has ever lived (Luke 23:47).

In His death, the righteous Jesus stood in place of sinners, paying the price for their sin, which is death (Isaiah 53:5-6, 12; Romans 8:3; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18). Subsequently, the only person who is righteous in God’s sight is Jesus Christ. But our sin was imputed to Jesus, he became sin for us. But in addition, Jesus graciously imputes His righteousness like Adam imputed his unrighteousness to us (Romans 3:21-22; 4:4-6; 5:12-21; 10:4; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:8-9; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18). Therefore, the answer to Job’s question is that an unrighteous person can stand righteous before the Holy, Righteous God not by their own works, but solely by trusting in the person and work of Jesus by faith (Genesis 15:6; Romans 3:21-22; 4:3, 5, 24; 10:4; Galatians 3:6, 11; Philippians 3:8-9; Hebrews 1:4). Jesus alone is our righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30), makes us new righteous people (Ephesians 4:24), and enables us to pursue righteousness (1 Timothy 6:11) and obey Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16), by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:3-4).